Although there is a natural tendency to associate wine-making almost entirely with grapes and occasionally berries, such as blackberry, a moment's reflection on familiar home-made wines such as "dandelion wine" leads to the obvious and accurate conclusion that a wine-like product can be obtained by the natural fermentation of a great variety of natural sources.
Now, it happens that the production of orange and like juices by the citrus industry results in substantial amounts of solid by-products, particularly pulp and peel, which have in the past been used as much as possible as cattle food for want of any other more advantageous use. This solid citrus waste is well adapted for fermentation into wine-like liquids, and with the increasing popularity of the so-called "citrus wine coolers", i.e., mixtures of citrus juices and inexpensive wine to form a low alcoholic proof beverage, efforts have been made to utilize this by-product from the citrus industry for the production of the wine constituent of these coolers. However, wines produced in this way tend to be characterized by rather unattractive and unappealing coloration of a dark reddish brown nature which tends to distract from the esthetic attraction of such wines. Although the citrus wine coolers themselves need not necessarily be of water-white transparency, rather tending generally to have a pale to medium yellow or orange coloration corresponding to the type of citrus fruit juice employed therein, it is difficult if not impossible to achieve this desirable coloration when directly using wines fermented from citrus waste products. It is more advantageous from the standpoint of the manufacturers of such coolers to use a water-white wine component and achieve the desired mild citrus coloration by means of the citrus juice itself, augmented if need be with known food colors so that the desired low intensity coloration can be easily controlled.
It is, of course, possible to subject the liquid fermentation products from this type of fermentation, as with any other fermentation product, to distillation to recover higher proof alcoholic media, but the distillation product naturally tends to lose much of the desirable wine type characteristics of the undistilled liquid such as its body, its pleasant citrusy aroma or bouquet, as well as its wine-like perception to the palate, all of which as well as less-definable qualities being collected under the term "vinosity". Wines produced from citrus waste products if freed from their unpleasant and unattractive coloration would, therefore, offer potential as a low proof generally colorless alcoholic medium for admixture with higher proof distillation products so as to achieve a final proof level, in addition to their use in formulating wine coolers.
Finally, the market prospects are potentially exciting for wine type beverages derived from the fermentation of more conventional media such as grapes and various berries, but processed so as to remove significant amounts of the natural coloration therefrom while leaving undisturbed the unique desirable qualities of vinosity other than coloration. For example, one could imagine adapting a traditional burgundy wine along the so-called "blush" lines that are currently heavily in vogue in the marketplace particularly with young adults, the term "blush" denoting a pale, pinkish coloration or, in another instance, producing a raspberry or blackberry wine or if fortified with higher proof natural spirits, a "brandy" of either water-white transparency or, if preferred, a slight pinkish or "blush" aspect.